Advertisements on television, radio, newspapers and even special magazines have an impact in the creation of the indirect language used in the discourse of sex and HIV/AIDS. Some of the examples arising from this include:
(28) –bambua (‘peel’)
-ponyoka na freesha (‘scrape through with a freshman’) -yellow pages, let the fingers do the walking
Kubambua (‘to peel’) is the removal of something that is firmly stuck to another. It could be the removal of some item that is fastened by, say, glue or cellotape. One could also associate –bambua with skinning some carcass.
At the time of doing the research for this paper, (May 2005), the largest beer company in Kenya was running a business promotion competition dubbed bambua tafrija. In this competition, a beer buyer was expected to peel rubber on the inner part of the bottle top and win whatever was drawn on the rubber. The peeling of a bottle top rubber and winning a present was extended by the youth to seduction and love making. So, one could bambua (‘peel’) if he succeeded in seducing and making love to a woman who happened to be a virgin. Perhaps the penetration of a virgin was likened to a firmly fastened rubber on the inner side of the bottle top.
In May 2005 also the largest newspaper company in the country Nation was running a business promotion competition called ‘Ponyoka na pickup’
whereby winners could get a "pick up" vehicle (small truck). In this case, a reader was expected to buy a newspaper and fill in a form with simple questions before mailing it to the company headquarters. After some time, winners could be picked through a ballot. In this ballot, one could “slide through” with a small truck (pick up). The trucks were few but the contestants were many and only very few could win. In the language of the youth, the lottery-like competition is transferred and associated with
seduction and lovemaking. In the context of Kenyan universities, the student population has more men compared to women. The male demand to befriend first year female students is high. Thus there is competition and only very few are lucky to win a first year female student hence ponyoka na freesha (‘scrape through with a freshman’). The happiness in winning a small truck is likened to the excitement of befriending a first year female student.
6. Conclusion
The goal of this paper was to identify the special lexemes and language expressions used by the youth in their discourse on sex and HIV/AIDS. By analysing data collected from university students, it has come out that there is a special code used by the youth. The uniqueness of the code comes through the lexemes and expressions, which have been lexicalized though they are sourced from Kiswahili, English, Kiswahili-English codeswitching and Sheng. Thus it is not always possible for an uninitiated person who speaks Kiswahili and English to decipher the lexemes and expressions unless s/he is initiated by being an in-group member of the youth. The uniqueness of the code is also seen in the way in which it has been created, sustained and spread. The existence of such a unique youth code shows the creativity of language as it changes and adjusts in order to meet emerging linguistic needs of its users.
The unique code very much tends towards Sheng. It has elsewhere been argued that Sheng is an unstable youth code that is largely identified through its lexemes (Ogechi 2002, 2005). Its grammar is based on the dominant language in the environment where it is spoken. Its lexemes could be sourced from Kiswahili, English, other Kenyan languages and coinings.
However, the words from Kiswahili, English and other languages assume a new meaning through lexicalisation. To a large extent, the paper has shown that the words and expressions used to discuss sex and HIV/AIDS among university students in Kenya satisfies these features. Thus one can safely conclude that the code is Sheng.
In its efforts to deal with the HIV/AIDS pandemic, society needs to involve the youth in all its endeavours if the anti-AIDS campaign is to succeed. It is my contention that success will always be elusive unless and until those
leading in the campaign understand and incorporate the youth code when dealing with the youth. Thus it is recommended that the youth language is used in the oral discussions, literature, posters, drama etc. that target the youth. University counseling and Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) Centres need to employ the services of people who know the language.
Those people must also be ready to adapt to any new vocabulary that the youth will coin from time to time.
The study reported here focused on the youth code used at the university. It is important to find out if the same or similar code is used in the rural areas, among the youth in towns generally and if there are any differences in the code used by urban youths in the high and low class residential areas.
List of Abbreviations
AIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome BA Bachelor of Arts
BED Bachelor of Education
HIV Human Immunodeficiency Virus NACC National Aids Control Council STD Sexually Transmitted Disease
TB Tuberculosis
VCT Voluntary Counseling Centres
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